Former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy, second from left, often delivered Starbucks coffee to "Murphy in the Morning" co-hosts Nick, from left, Katie and Murphy. He did a weekly call-in segment with the show during his 13 years as coach.(Photo: Courtesy of WIXX)

A week before Mike McCarthy lost his job as Green Bay Packers head coach, he made his regular Thursday call to WIXX’s “Murphy in the Morning” show, just as he had done each week during the season for the last 13 years.

The conversation turned to social media, with “Coach,” as co-hosts Murphy, Katie and Nick called him, saying he had been considering joining social media for a long time and perhaps was finally ready to take the plunge. Right on cue, all three voices on the other end rushed in with the same reaction, something akin to, “Uh ... maybe this isn’t the right time, Coach. Maybe you want to hold off a little longer.”

McCarthy’s response was exactly what they’ve come to love about the man most Packers fans knew only from seeing him on the sidelines of Lambeau Field and at the podium of press conferences.

“The genuine laughter he delivered from our reaction to it was one of my favorite moments of his, because he had a way of not taking himself too seriously and understanding the weight of the moment and the seat he was sitting upon and still finding a way to laugh in the midst of that,” Nick said. “It was one of my favorite human sides of him that he brought out on the air.”

The “Murphy in the Morning” crew learned a lot about McCarthy during weekly on-air calls that focused on anything but breaking down the X’s and O’s of the latest game. By the end of the week, that had already been hashed over ad nauseam, and he had answered the same handful of questions countless times. Their segment with him was casual and relaxed — a chance to show off his lighter side and relate to him in a more personal way.

“We had a different dynamic with him. We weren’t looking to get quotes out of him. We weren’t looking for him to explain himself or justify his decisions," Murphy said. "We’re in the entertainment business. ... He has a great sense of humor. He’s a funny guy. But when he’s in front of 15 sports reporters that’s not the opportunity to show that off.”

Murphy, Katie and Nick wouldn’t grill him about the play he called in the final seconds of halftime on Sunday, but they might put him on the spot about what chores he helps out with at home. It was always the last interview he did that morning and the one he looked forward to most, Murphy said.

“The five minutes we would talk to him on the air was the shortest portion of our chat. Some days, we would talk 20 to 25 minutes off-air before we got around to actually doing the on-air interview,” he said. “We talked about a lot of stuff. ... He got to know our families and what we like, and we got to know his family.”

Family, it turned out, was his soft spot. McCarthy and his wife Jessica have five children.

“Anytime we interviewed him and brought up his family, he could go on forever,” Katie said. “The thing I probably learned most about Coach is that he’s so head over heels in love with his family. He adores those little girls and would never say a bad thing about them or his wife or his stepsons.”

Former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy takes a selfie with WIXX-FM's "Murphy in the Morning" co-hosts Nick, from left, Murphy and Katie. They became friends during their weekly on-air chats.(Photo: Courtesy of WIXX)

She remembers the segment when the topic of what movies they had had enough of came up. It was at the height of popularity of the Disney movie "Frozen,” a time when any parent with little kids was being subjected to Anna, Elsa and “Let It Go” over and over. If McCarthy was suffering from “Frozen” fatigue, he wouldn’t say, because he didn’t want to hurt the feelings of his two young daughters, Katie said.

“I think that was a great snapshot of him as a whole. Just the kind of person he is,” Nick said. “He’s a great protector, whether that was his players or the organization or what took place on a game day or his family or himself. He would always protect those around him at the expense of himself many times.”

When WIXX was looking for someone to play Santa Claus for a special event with child cancer survivors and their families, McCarthy was happy to put on the red suit.

“I remember when we asked him, the first thing he said was, ‘Anything for the kids.’ He didn’t even hesitate,” Katie said.

When her son, Brody, was battling cancer last year, he and his family sent flowers. He called upon his Catholic faith, too, sending prayers and asking his mom back in Pittsburgh to light candles for Brody in church.

With her son in remission, Katie learned the protective nature she saw in McCarthy is catchy.

“I’m fiercely protective of that man now, of Coach McCarthy,” she said. “To me, there’s pretty much no greater human being than that man.”

McCarthy would sometimes stop in on the show. First came a text: “Hey, I’m at Starbucks. What do you guys want?” They would text their order back and he would deliver it.

“He embodies everything that we like to believe about the Packers that is different from the rest of the NFL, where we have such a unique relationship in all of professional sports without a hard owner, with the community being the team,” Nick said. “His personality, who he is, how he appreciated the little things about coming to work every day, about his drive into work, the little things he would observe about Lambeau Field ... he just appreciated the weight that was on his shoulders of not just winning a football game but for winning a football game for Green Bay, Wisconsin, and for the Green Bay Packers and what that relationship is to this city and to the NFL as a whole.”

That’s not to say he was above getting some ribbing on the air. They’re the first to admit their friendship probably allowed them to get away with things others would never have thought of.

“He had no problem dishing it back, too,” Murphy said. “He liked to make fun of me. He liked to make fun of Nick. Katie was his favorite.”

All those phone chats gave them insight into what it's like to be an NFL coach. It has also made his dismissal feel deeply personal. It may be easy to call for the firing of someone you’ve never met, Murphy said, but you see it differently when it’s someone you know.

“Whatever his next endeavor is, we’ll be right there supporting him,” Murphy said. “... He’s still not off the hook for bringing us coffee. That’s still part of the regimen.”